Saturn

The biggest avalanches in the solar system happen on Saturn’s moon Iapetus

Iapetus, already one of the strangest moons in our solar system, just got a little weirder. Images from the Cassini space mission reveal that the mysterious moon is home to massive ice avalanches second in size only to landslides seen on Mars. Studying them, say researchers, could help us better understand geological disasters here on…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jul 30

This massive Saturnian thunderbolt was so bright it was visible from space. In broad daylight.

It’s not every day you witness a thunderstorm from space, let alone one on another planet, but the thunderstorm pictured here is an even rarer sight to behold. For one thing, these images, captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, were photographed from a distance of over two million miles (space footage of lightning on Earth, by…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jul 20

A Startling Vortex on the South Pole of Titan

The Cassini imaging team released today a near-true-color image and a movie taken during a flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan on June 27, 2012 by the Cassini spacecraft. The image reveals a swirling, whirling vortex forming high in the atmosphere overlying the south pole of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, as the moon’s southern hemisphere slowly…

io9 Ron Miller Jul 10

NASA finds hidden ocean on Saturn’s moon Titan

Using incredibly precise measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, researchers have concluded that Saturn’s biggest moon is likely hiding a global, sub-surface water ocean, 100 km beneath its surface. One of the most enigmatic bodies in our solar system just got even more intriguing. Cassini has flown by Titan more than 80 times since entering Saturn’s…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 28

NASA has solved the mystery of Saturn’s jet streams

Saturn’s atmosphere is constantly swimming with turbulent jet streams — but where do they get their energy to form in the first place? This has been one of the biggest mysteries about Saturn for decades. Now, using data acquired from the Agency’s Cassini spacecraft, NASA scientists think they have the answer: the energy for the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 27

Experience eight years of breathtaking Saturnian exploration in five minutes

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting around Saturn and its various moons since 2004. In that time, it’s collected thousands upon thousands of awe-inspiring images of the ringed planet and its satellites. From time to time, someone with the requisite patience, dedication and passion pores over this extensive collection of interplanetary photographs and uses them…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 23

Saturn’s moon Phoebe could have been a planet

When it comes to Saturn’s moons, Phoebe tends to be overshadowed by its siblings. Titan‘s size earns her the title of Saturn’s biggest moon (and the second-biggest moon in our solar system), while Enceladus boasts those attention-getting fountains of water and ice pouring from its south pole. But new data from the Cassini mission shows…

io9 Sophie Bushwick Apr 29

Glittering trails of giant snowballs seen in weirdest ring of Saturn

Weird half-mile-sized objects have now been seen punching through what may be Saturn’s strangest ring, leaving sparkling trails behind them. And researchers say these findings could shed light on the oddball behavior of that ring. The Saturnian ring in question is the planet’s F ring, the outermost discrete ring of the planet. The F ring…

io9 Charles Choi Apr 25

This Beautiful Space Video Will Make You Have Flying Dreams Tonight

Using images sequences from NASA’s Cassini and Voyager missions, Sander van den Berg has put together one of the most beautiful space videos I’ve ever seen. So dreamy. The film and the song—That Home, by The Cinematic Orchestra—just give me the chills. [Twitter via Fogonazos]

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz Apr 24

Watch Saturn and Its Moons Dance in This Video Made Entirely of Stills

Video artist Sander van cen Berg created this winsome video entirely out of still images from NASA’s Cassini and Voyager missions. Because the video is constructed like a flipbook, it also has a retro feel that’s hard to beat. More art-house film than NASA footage, and that’s a great aesthetic for a look at our…

Tech News Kif Leswing Apr 23

These ticks shrug off airless vacuums and powerful electron beams like they’re no big deal

These bugs might just be the hardest organisms on the planet. They’re the only creatures observed alive inside an electron microscope that actually survived this airless, high-radiation environment. This discovery could mean big things for life on other worlds. One of the basic tenets of scanning electron microscopes (SEM) is that, if you actually want…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 3

What would your voice sound like on Venus?

Let’s imagine that you and a friend could converse on the planet Venus — without having to worry about the lack of oxygen, crushing pressure, and beyond boiling temperatures. Your friend would sound so different that you’d actually see her differently. That’s one of the more intriguing conclusions from a team led by the University…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 2

Flag Designs for Earth & The Solar System in 2020 and Beyond

Redittor thefrek has designed a kick-ass series of flags for the Solar System and its planets. But flags, as we all know, change over time. So he’s also created possible revisions for those flags reaching as far as 800 years into the future. Below you’ll find thefrek’s concept designs for “Earth/Solar flags throughout the future,”…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 23

10 Moons Every Person Should Know

Pretty much everyone can rattle off the names of our solar system’s eight (formerly nine) planets, but ask the average person to list some moons and you’ll be lucky if they can tell you more than two or three. Now, you obviously can’t expect people to remember the name of every single satellite in the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 12

Oxygen discovered around Saturn’s icy moon

The moons of Saturn and Jupiter are just getting more and more intriguing. While many of those far-flung satellites might contain liquid oceans, a new report indicates that Dione, one of Saturn’s icy moons, is surrounded by a thin layer of oxygen. According to a new report published in Geophysical Research Letters, Cassini detected a…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 3

Saturn’s two largest moons, captured in tandem

Saturn has 62 known moons. Pictured here are the biggest of the lot, arranged as two crescents, one sitting atop the other. The one you’ve probably heard of before is Titan [click here for hi-res]. Within our solar system, the massive orb is second only to Jupiter’s Ganymede in size. It’s also the only moon…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 25

See Saturn’s weird moon Enceladus in breathtaking detail!

This extreme closeup of Saturn’s moon Enceladus is the work of the Cassini orbiter, which snapped this awesome image way back in January 2011. Here, the satellite glows a golden brown as it basks in the light of its planet. Normally, Enceladus would appear almost purely white, but Cassini has captured the moon when it…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 12

Stare into the soul of Saturn’s mysterious hexagonal cloud system

Feast your eyes on one of the most puzzling planetary mysteries our solar system has to offer. In this photograph of Saturn’s north pole, captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in 2009, clouds can be seen encircling the planet at about 77 degrees north latitude. Even at such a high parallel, the massive six-sided jet stream…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 23

Meet Iapetus, Saturn’s mysterious “yin-yang” moon

More than 60 moons are known to orbit Saturn, but few of them are as visually striking as Iapetus. Named formally after the Greek mythological Titan, Iapetus is sometimes referred to as the “painted,” or “yin-yang” moon, due to puzzling variations in its surface composition. The moon’s trailing hemisphere, shown here, is so bright and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 13

Have scientists found a super Saturn?

Using light-curve analysis astronomers have found a strange, dust-ringed object orbiting a distant star. They all agree it’s like a ‘Saturn on steroids,’ but what actually is rolling around inside those dust rings? Taking a look at a star’s light-curves has been a common way of finding extrasolar planets. The planets are too dim to…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 12

The biggest avalanches in the solar system happen on Saturn’s moon Iapetus

This massive Saturnian thunderbolt was so bright it was visible from space. In broad daylight.

A Startling Vortex on the South Pole of Titan

NASA finds hidden ocean on Saturn’s moon Titan

NASA has solved the mystery of Saturn’s jet streams

Experience eight years of breathtaking Saturnian exploration in five minutes

Saturn’s moon Phoebe could have been a planet

Glittering trails of giant snowballs seen in weirdest ring of Saturn

This Beautiful Space Video Will Make You Have Flying Dreams Tonight

Watch Saturn and Its Moons Dance in This Video Made Entirely of Stills

These ticks shrug off airless vacuums and powerful electron beams like they’re no big deal

What would your voice sound like on Venus?

Flag Designs for Earth & The Solar System in 2020 and Beyond

10 Moons Every Person Should Know

Oxygen discovered around Saturn’s icy moon

Saturn’s two largest moons, captured in tandem

See Saturn’s weird moon Enceladus in breathtaking detail!

Stare into the soul of Saturn’s mysterious hexagonal cloud system

Meet Iapetus, Saturn’s mysterious “yin-yang” moon

Have scientists found a super Saturn?

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